From 1920 until 1935, KLM and the NV Nederlandsche Vliegtuigenfabriek (of Anthony Fokker) were closely connected to each other. After the successful introduction of the Fokker F.III, the fleet was modernized in the mid-1920s with the single-engined Fokker F.VIIa. But after the Ford Reliability Race (in the USA, 1925), Fokker decided to modify the Fokker F.VIIa into a three-engined aircraft for better reliability. A genius idea that led to an explosion of sales of the aircraft, known as F.VIIa-3m and later F.VIIb-3m, to the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, but also to many other countries in Europe and well beyond.
At the end of the 1920s, the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines wanted to increase the capacity of their aircraft and asked Anthony Fokker for a faster aircraft. With faster aircraft, KLM wanted to prove that it was not necessary to fly with a special-designed ‘mail’ aircraft to the Netherlands East Indies. First out was the F.IX, that was not accepted, but then came the F.XII and the F.XVIII, which both saw extensive service with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The models operated the service from the Netherlands to the Dutch colony Netherlands East Indies, which KLM had run since 1928. Internationally, these models were not as successful as the three-engined F.VII-series. At the beginning of the 1930s the French airline Air Union SA showed interest in a successor of its obsolete Fokker F.VIIb-3ms and turned to Fokker for a new model. Anthony Fokker and his designers started to work on the Fokker F.XX. Under pressure of the French press and Government the order was cancelled and instead the factory offered the aircraft to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
The aircraft was redesigned and taken into service, but was no success, as new and better aircraft were coming. The aircraft flew for several years for the KLM on the European network and was finally sold to Spain, where it ended its career during the Spanish Civil War. In this book, I have described the history of the aircraft with many new details and photographs.
